Service dog helps at church

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The Rev. Joel Marable stood at the altar at St. Matthew’s Anglican Catholic Church on Christmas morning and officiated at Mass, just as he has done many times before.

But this time was different.

This time his friend Donovan sat nearby, meticulously monitoring the priest’s blood pressure. Marable, the 67-year-old curate at the Newport News church, has survived a dozen strokes, and if Donovan detects any significant drop in blood pressure, he signals for the priest to sit down before he loses his balance and falls.